British group AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine with Oxford, said on Friday that its deliveries would be smaller than expected, subject to its product being validated on a European scale at the end of January.

For European countries including France, this is another blow after the delays from Pfizer.

Difficulties are mounting regarding the supply of vaccines against Covid-19 in Europe.

After the delays announced by Pfizer in the deliveries of vaccines against the Covid, it is the British group AstraZeneca which indicated Friday deliveries of its vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford and not yet authorized in Europe, would be less important than expected in first half of 2021. For French health authorities and other European countries, this is a source of concern as the approval of this new vaccine at European level is scheduled for next Friday.

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Up to 400 million doses of this product ordered by the European Union

In some countries, deliveries of up to 80% are expected.

At issue: a drop in yield on one of its production sites.

The news greatly embarrasses the European Union, which had reserved up to 400 million doses of this product.

For its part, France hoped to receive nine million by the end of March.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Deputy Minister in charge of Industry, is however reassuring about the situation.

She believes that this announcement should not officially delay the French vaccination campaign and indicated that everything was being done to compensate as quickly as possible for this lack of vaccines.

"We have new vaccines arriving, we have Pfizer which is increasing its production capacity," she said on France Inter radio.

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In total, since the start of the vaccination campaign, France has received two million doses.

But the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine has the advantage of being cheaper to produce than that of its rivals.

It is also easier to store and transport, especially that from Pfizer / BioNTech which must be stored at very low temperatures (-70 ° C).